Where the revolution is more likely to happen, in developed or non-developing countries?

Where the revolution is more likely to happen, in developed or non-developing countries?

By: Zaher Baher

Nov 2016

Opposite to the communists and other leftists, I understand revolution as a socialist/anarchist one and its outcome is a classless and non-hierarchically society.

Developing capitalism, reaching globalization, the fast increase in the number of working class and apparent economic crisis that has often been mistaken for capitalist crisis – it all makes old theories about revolution obsolete. It’s not just that the revolution has not happened. In fact, if the revolution in advanced industrialized countries has not aborted, certainly it has been postponed for a long time.

Capitalism on its own managed to create many groups among leftists, socialists, libertarians and feminists who are serving the system instead of fighting it. It also managed to find gaps, places as a cheap market, using issues of nationalism, terrorism, racism, fascism and religion to create different types of war between the human beings. By doing this it has expanded and managed to renew itself. This has proved that capitalism is not “digging a grave for itself” in fact it is digging it for us, and was able to create a crisis often to make our movement weaker and weaker.

In addition, capitalism in very industrialized countries long time ago has managed to defuse all the tools like strikes, demonstrations, protests that have been used by the working class and the rest as the tools of struggle. These tactics in fact are now playing in the hands of the system instead to be against it.

Previously I have written quite a lot about that, I’m therefore trying to avoid repeating myself here and prefer to get straight to the subject.

There are a couple of views about the way revolution happens and its victory:

First: Revolution through vanguard party, the military coup or through the election of parliamentary system. This means the revolution happens from the top of the society and the outcome of either one is more or less the same. History proved that these revolutions wherever they have happened has not just failed but in fact, brought disasters and disappointment to people. They also proved that imposing the theory over realities is wrong and brings catastrophe.

Second: preparation for happening revolution through self-organizing in radical independent non-hierarchal groups, committees, assemblies in all realms: politics, economic, culture, education, social and climate and ecology. Self-organizing in factories, farms, public services, markets, schools, universities, and in other work place is crucial. These groups in the beginning are working to achieve daily necessities and empowering the role and independence of the individuals. Then to work on building a movement on a local level, nationwide through the social networks and the people’s assemblies in the neighborhoods, villages, cities and towns. They link together to launch their activities through direct action by using direct democracy. After empowering themselves and establishing self-administration they can challenge the state and its entire administrations and getting closer to its main strategy.

In my opinion while we see the state as a main center of the entire power in the country, in this case it is practical and sensible to have the same view to the most advanced industrialized countries like US, Canada, Australia, Russia, Japan and the western countries as a center for the world. This center with its financial institutions has an enormous political and economical power over the rest of the world, especially the not or less developed countries as they are main bases for them. In this case collapsing this center with the theory “the revolution must be bottom up” should start from the countries which are protecting and preserving the interests of the advanced industrialized countries. This does not mean the demonstrations, protests, strikes, occupations and riots do not happen in the industrialized countries. On the contrary, while there has been exploitation, work slavery, inequality and no social justice, they certainly caused the backslash. However, when people have no intention to organize themselves, do not have a long-term plan, these tools of struggles are just temporary ways to achieving the current goals – even if all these actions are for maintaining what we have achieved previously. So these activities do not just achieve major changes; in fact they bring disappointment for people.

What made this Center so strong is the existence of not or less developed countries where they preserve the rich ground in providing cheap labors, cheap materials also they are lucrative markets for them. When the political and economic dependency of the Center to these countries and vice versa ends, in other words when the bases are destroyed, then the top will collapse as well.

There are some social areas in less developed societies, which do not exist in advanced industrialized countries, being rich soil for a revolution. These grounds are::

Social Relationship

In these countries capitalism has not reached every corner of the individual’s life who are living in a very good social relationship and their contacts are more human and less on the basis of goods and materials. The State’s agencies designated to help and support the poor or unemployed either do not exist or offer very little help. And also in the situation of the natural and man-made disasters, in both cases, whole burden falls on the shoulders of the people themselves and their communities. They help each other morally, financially, collecting stuff and showing solidarity. In short, people in those societies rely completely on themselves in the community rather than on the government to fulfill their needs, when they face the disasters or in having happiness times. In those countries there are still some simple bases of old community remained. To certain extent still in some places these people are living and working collectively. Their conversations are about politics and the problems are going on in their communities and outside, are concerning them. In a society like this the contacts and making relationships between individuals in their workplaces, in neighborhood, in villages, in universities and other places are very easy. People there talk about their daily needs; they debate and discuss the concerning issues, making decisions about them. They trust one another so that it is easy for them to come together in doing the common work, activities and can commit themselves to do so. Of course these can be much easier for the people to organize themselves for different issues, making decisions and delivering them. Certainly this is easier to be done in remote villages than very big villages, in towns than the cities. The self-organization through building local groups and people’s assemblies, make people working and living collectively in convenient and more practical.

There are more positive points in addition to the above in the societies of those countries while in an advanced industrialized countries it either does not exist or very little.

The weak points of the capitalism

It is quite clear that achieving easy target and easy victory always happen from the weakest point of the system. It is also clear the weakest point here are the none or lesser industrialized countries and their communities because of the grounds that I described above. While in these societies the majority of their people have not become robot, their talks and conversation are still not about the latest fashions, models of the different consuming, they have still remained human being. In these places effort and preparation for building cooperatives, trying to live together, desiring to share their social and economic necessities is easy. In such places the villages, the countryside and the small towns are less dependent to big towns and free-market.

In those countries and their societies, if the people are ruling themselves, they are able to obtain all the necessities of life, and also simple tools, means of agricultural and ecological economy. If they cannot obtain some of their needs, they can get them through exchanging process via social network or their assemblies. There is no doubt to believe there are countries in the world where people remain poor, if the people rule themselves. What made those countries and their society are poor is greedy rich and elites, the state, corruption, the society structures that set up on the basis of class and hierarchy and implementing polices and plan of neo-liberal economy.

The process of defeating the capitalism, the process of ending up the dependency of one another is slow, long way but very solid. Its entire victory and expanding the experiment rely on the international solidarity of libertarians and anti-authoritarians and also happening the same process at least in a few countries…

Existing hierarchical and class society, inequality, injustice, poverty, war and more, have left us with just a few options: sitting down and doing nothing, or waiting for the vanguard party, the military coup, election (the biggest lie in history). This way is more dangerous than the sitting back and doing nothing because most of the time intensify the disasters. Or simply fighting back the system through building the independent radical non-hierarchal local groups. These are the real basis and the real hope for the future revolution.